eclectic personal thoughts and musings

I saw a very bright meteor this evening, at about 6:30pm. The sky was clear and it was dark, but with just a ghost of light left in the sky. At first, I thought I was seeing a firework, but I soon realised what it must be.

It was significantly brighter than Jupiter, but certainly did not light the sky or cast a shadow, and it appeared as a thin streak, coming down almost vertically and growing quickly in apparent size. It is hard to judge how large it became – still small but definitely an object and leaving sparks behind it. The whole thing lasted less than a second and just disappeared – no explosion or final flare up though it was becoming brighter until then. I was standing at the Brighton road, Vicarage Lane junction in Horley and the meteor seemed to be coming down over the building nearby so to my south-west, with the end of the trail slightly to the left (east) of the beginning. When I first noticed, it was high – perhaps 80 degrees or so in altitude and it was still at least 60 degrees when it disappeared. I suspect this all means it was relatively close, but impossible to tell. The map gives some idea of location: